A "flavored" jasmine (sprayed with oils/flavorings versus the traditionally scented with actual flowers) tea served as Jasmine tea will really p*** me off. It is so cloyingly fake tasting and worse yet smells so vile that I would surely draw my Magnum 44 on the offending server and say "go ahead, make my TeaDay!"

But no jasmine tea today.

Began this TD with a prelim tasting of Zencha's new Yutaka Midori as I prepare to weigh out OTTI samples. To be fair to participants, I will not comment on this one til after members receive their samples.

I went with Lipton, and generic tea that made Lipton seem "good". Lipton's "green tea", and I use that term very loosely, was absolutely disgusting. Scarily enough, it was outdone by Salada and Red Rose. The one and only thing I like about RR are the little ceramic figurines which come in the box - one of which became a tea-friend.

Ew, overtly flavored tea. Even more attitude if it's in a bag. I'm at peace with Lipton bags. Good memories linked to my Mom and aunt. Whenever I got sick as a kid, I got yummy homemade soups and mugs of Lipton with honey and lemon from these women.

No tea this morning. Heading to work. Maybe I can throw some Darjeeling 2nd flush into a bottle of warm water. I learned that water hotter than appropriate for green tea is just going to make Darjeeling too puckery and bitter. Having a clear bottle of loose leaf tea while I'm running a cash register makes for good conversation with the customers

Not really a party per se, but am having a couple people over for a celebratory gongfu session. Figured I'd start off with a Long Jing (gotta have the obligatory green ) and see where things go from there - possibly an '09 Shui Xing. Maybe an '08 Hong Yun. These are brand new tea drinkers -- don't want to hit them with anything too hard.

All of the above... plus overly ridiculous herbals. I mean I'm not opposed to a chamomile or a peppermint but when you get into a beepollen- maple treebark-wheatgrass -yerba matte vanilla chai blend it gets a little crazy for me.